We've seen no evidence that is going to happen, but Tulane's best hope is to dominate the AAC in the standings, starting this weekend at South Florida, which inexplicably has by far the league's highest RPI at 43. It will require a different team than the one that has played the first 25 games.
The sole encouraging thing about last night's 7-6 loss to UNO was Wes Burton's lights-out performance from the bullpen. It's not just that he struck out seven of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings. It was how he looked doing it, going to a 2-0 count only once while showing total command and punching out some quality hitters. The 6-foot-8 grad transfer from Santa Monica, Calif., who appeared ticketed for a big role last season before tearing his UCL in the Fall Ball World Series, is a great interview. Here is what he said today.
On how confidence he is that he can replicate that performance:
"I've always believed in myself. I've obviously been through a lot in my career. I'm really grateful for the coaching staff and them giving me the opportunity to be here and continue to progress and continue to work with me. Just more than anything I'm really grateful for that opportunity and for that support. I'm starting to feel like myself again out there coming off the injury. That's really exciting, and I hope to keep it rolling."
On recovery process from Tommy John surgery:
"It was definitely a challenge, and my career as a whole has not gone exactly the way that I drew it up coming out of high school, but I've learned a lot of lessons in that journey and picked up a lot of different things along the way. Probably the biggest thing that I've learned has just been the power of perseverance and that failure isn't final and you're not locked into whatever position you're at. It's something coach Jay says a lot, it's never as bad as you think it is and it's never as good as you think it is, so the temptation is to think that I threw really well last night and I'm on top of the world, or when it's not going your way, which obviously I've spent a lot of time in that position, the temptation is to be woe is me and think it will never turn around, but it's just having that belief in the coaching staff and really just belief in myself that I can get where I want to."
On when he got hurt and when he had surgery:
"It was November 16th or Nov. 17 of 2023. It was our second game of the Fall World Series. I had the surgery Dec. 6 of 2023. I haven't had any other major injuries, but the elbow was always a nagging thing. It was something that I had initially injured my senior year of high school, and we evaluated some different options, got a couple of opinions, a couple that recommended surgery, and then by the time I was able to get an appointment with Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache, who at the time I wanted to have do the surgery and eventually did the surgery when I had it in 2023, my elbow didn't hurt. His instructions were give it another couple of weeks and then try throwing and see how it goes. I managed it the five years of my career and had gotten here and thrown really well my first fall and got to the end of the fall and reached back for a 3-2 fastball to Michael Lombardi. Struck him out for the record, so we went out on a win, but I felt it and I knew what I was dealing with at that point, and even my whole career I'd known I was going to need it at some point. It was kind of a management process, but the little thread that was still hanging on finally went."
On taking advantage of his last chance:
"It's a huge motivation. I've been around the block in my career and seen a thing or two. I don't think I've ultimately accomplished what I've wanted to accomplish. I've gotten to be a part of some really good teams and experienced some really cool things and am incredibly grateful for that, but there's still more I want to achieve and am excited to be a part of. I love my teammates and I love the group and I love the coaching staff that we have here and I'm really excited to play whatever role I can in helping us reach our goals."
On his role at Indiana in 2023:
"I was kind of a mid-relief guy. We made it to a regional and lost. I got hot in the bullpen about 17 times that weekend but didn't end up going in, which if you compared my career stats to how many innings I threw in the bullpen warming up, it's very different."
On success of teams at Ole Miss and Indiana:
"I have watched a lot of winning. That is true. I've been in the clubhouse for a lot of winning."
On Ole Miss years:
"I had a great experience there and I'm super grateful for my time there. I don't think it went the way that I or coach Bianco or any of the staff there necessarily had envisioned it when they were recruiting me out of high school. Consistency and executing multiple pitches in the strike zone, the game just didn't always shake out the way you want it to. I still have a tremendous relationship with everybody there and left on great terms. When we had our ring ceremony to get the national championship team back together, I went and gave everybody hugs. The plan all along was for me to be there for three years. The hope was that I would get drafted and move on, but I graduated from there."
On how he ended up at Ole Miss:
"I wasn't really looking at the SEC coming from California. I had grown up going to UCLA games. That was what I knew of college baseball. Watched some great baseball growing up. The standard Friday night in the Burton household was to go to Jackie Robinson Stadium and watch some baseball, but I was looking more at the high academic institutions, the Dukes and the Stanfords and places like that. Ole Miss saw a video of me on Twitter and they happened to be going to play Long Beach State two weeks later. They came and saw me throw a bullpen at 7 in the morning at an empty facility and recruited me off of that. Then I went down there and fell in love with the place. I'm so grateful for my time there. It was an amazing experience that I'm incredibly lucky to have had."
On Ole Miss going from mediocrity in season to College World Series champion in 2022:
"Absolutely. If there's one thing I can emphasize, I'm so grateful for the various lessons I've learned along my journey and things I hope I can help this team with that I've seen in my career before I got to Tulane. If I had to signal something from that experience, it would just be the perseverance piece where things weren't going our way but we knew we were a good ball club, we knew we had the talent, we knew we had the pieces to get where we wanted to go. I feel the exact same way about this team. We have all the talent in the world. We have all the pieces to get where we want to go. It's just a matter of getting everything lined up and executing on a day-in, day-out basis. I have no doubt that we'll get there and do that."
On what he does best on the mound:
"I'm dominating the strike zone with my best stuff and executing three pitches for strikes. Something coach Izzio and I have worked on a lot in the last three weeks was I came into college as a fastball-curveball guy and got away from that. I don't think in a Division I game I'd thrown a curveball before three weeks ago. so after my first outing against Nicholls this season, we were relying almost exclusively on my fastball, and he and I met the next morning and talked about adding a curveball. I was like I threw one back in the day, and he said I think that will help with the way my fastball plays. We can create a tunnel off of that with the downward, hard breaking ball. We got to work with that. Frankie Niemann as well has been a huge help with that, and that's really been a focus of developing that so we have something to keep guys off of my fastball. It's kind of a rising tide lifts all boats. You add something else to the arsenal and it takes them off my fastball. Now my fastball looks better even though it's the same fastball it was. Now they're not hunting just that. The development of that has been huge for me, and I have to credit coach Izzio with that. We've incorporated my changeup more and continued to work on that, refining that and having that be something that we can lean on really. That's been the biggest development for me over the last couple of weeks. I've gone from really a one-pitch pitcher, which I think I've thrown 90-percent fastballs in my career, and had some decent success doing it."
On fastball speed:
"It's been up to 95, but it's probably more 92, 94 than anything else. It's really more the peripheral metrics that make it as good a pitch as it is, but hitters at this level are so talented that if you're only throwing one pitch at them, regardless of the velocity, regardless of the induced vertical break, they can get to it, but now if you can force them to respect two or three pitches, it makes it a lot more difficult especially when you have the low-mid 90s in your back pocket. Now it gets up on you a little bit quicker."
On grad degree:
"I'm getting a master's in sports studies.:
On being two-time Academic All-SEC at Ole Miss:
"One thing my mama always emphasized, that was the deal we made was all right, if you're going to go to Ole Miss, you better get good grades. You're going to graduate in three years and if baseball doesn't work out, you can go to grad school. I was just excited to play baseball forever. I'm going to play college baseball forever."
The sole encouraging thing about last night's 7-6 loss to UNO was Wes Burton's lights-out performance from the bullpen. It's not just that he struck out seven of the nine batters he faced in three perfect innings. It was how he looked doing it, going to a 2-0 count only once while showing total command and punching out some quality hitters. The 6-foot-8 grad transfer from Santa Monica, Calif., who appeared ticketed for a big role last season before tearing his UCL in the Fall Ball World Series, is a great interview. Here is what he said today.
On how confidence he is that he can replicate that performance:
"I've always believed in myself. I've obviously been through a lot in my career. I'm really grateful for the coaching staff and them giving me the opportunity to be here and continue to progress and continue to work with me. Just more than anything I'm really grateful for that opportunity and for that support. I'm starting to feel like myself again out there coming off the injury. That's really exciting, and I hope to keep it rolling."
On recovery process from Tommy John surgery:
"It was definitely a challenge, and my career as a whole has not gone exactly the way that I drew it up coming out of high school, but I've learned a lot of lessons in that journey and picked up a lot of different things along the way. Probably the biggest thing that I've learned has just been the power of perseverance and that failure isn't final and you're not locked into whatever position you're at. It's something coach Jay says a lot, it's never as bad as you think it is and it's never as good as you think it is, so the temptation is to think that I threw really well last night and I'm on top of the world, or when it's not going your way, which obviously I've spent a lot of time in that position, the temptation is to be woe is me and think it will never turn around, but it's just having that belief in the coaching staff and really just belief in myself that I can get where I want to."
On when he got hurt and when he had surgery:
"It was November 16th or Nov. 17 of 2023. It was our second game of the Fall World Series. I had the surgery Dec. 6 of 2023. I haven't had any other major injuries, but the elbow was always a nagging thing. It was something that I had initially injured my senior year of high school, and we evaluated some different options, got a couple of opinions, a couple that recommended surgery, and then by the time I was able to get an appointment with Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache, who at the time I wanted to have do the surgery and eventually did the surgery when I had it in 2023, my elbow didn't hurt. His instructions were give it another couple of weeks and then try throwing and see how it goes. I managed it the five years of my career and had gotten here and thrown really well my first fall and got to the end of the fall and reached back for a 3-2 fastball to Michael Lombardi. Struck him out for the record, so we went out on a win, but I felt it and I knew what I was dealing with at that point, and even my whole career I'd known I was going to need it at some point. It was kind of a management process, but the little thread that was still hanging on finally went."
On taking advantage of his last chance:
"It's a huge motivation. I've been around the block in my career and seen a thing or two. I don't think I've ultimately accomplished what I've wanted to accomplish. I've gotten to be a part of some really good teams and experienced some really cool things and am incredibly grateful for that, but there's still more I want to achieve and am excited to be a part of. I love my teammates and I love the group and I love the coaching staff that we have here and I'm really excited to play whatever role I can in helping us reach our goals."
On his role at Indiana in 2023:
"I was kind of a mid-relief guy. We made it to a regional and lost. I got hot in the bullpen about 17 times that weekend but didn't end up going in, which if you compared my career stats to how many innings I threw in the bullpen warming up, it's very different."
On success of teams at Ole Miss and Indiana:
"I have watched a lot of winning. That is true. I've been in the clubhouse for a lot of winning."
On Ole Miss years:
"I had a great experience there and I'm super grateful for my time there. I don't think it went the way that I or coach Bianco or any of the staff there necessarily had envisioned it when they were recruiting me out of high school. Consistency and executing multiple pitches in the strike zone, the game just didn't always shake out the way you want it to. I still have a tremendous relationship with everybody there and left on great terms. When we had our ring ceremony to get the national championship team back together, I went and gave everybody hugs. The plan all along was for me to be there for three years. The hope was that I would get drafted and move on, but I graduated from there."
On how he ended up at Ole Miss:
"I wasn't really looking at the SEC coming from California. I had grown up going to UCLA games. That was what I knew of college baseball. Watched some great baseball growing up. The standard Friday night in the Burton household was to go to Jackie Robinson Stadium and watch some baseball, but I was looking more at the high academic institutions, the Dukes and the Stanfords and places like that. Ole Miss saw a video of me on Twitter and they happened to be going to play Long Beach State two weeks later. They came and saw me throw a bullpen at 7 in the morning at an empty facility and recruited me off of that. Then I went down there and fell in love with the place. I'm so grateful for my time there. It was an amazing experience that I'm incredibly lucky to have had."
On Ole Miss going from mediocrity in season to College World Series champion in 2022:
"Absolutely. If there's one thing I can emphasize, I'm so grateful for the various lessons I've learned along my journey and things I hope I can help this team with that I've seen in my career before I got to Tulane. If I had to signal something from that experience, it would just be the perseverance piece where things weren't going our way but we knew we were a good ball club, we knew we had the talent, we knew we had the pieces to get where we wanted to go. I feel the exact same way about this team. We have all the talent in the world. We have all the pieces to get where we want to go. It's just a matter of getting everything lined up and executing on a day-in, day-out basis. I have no doubt that we'll get there and do that."
On what he does best on the mound:
"I'm dominating the strike zone with my best stuff and executing three pitches for strikes. Something coach Izzio and I have worked on a lot in the last three weeks was I came into college as a fastball-curveball guy and got away from that. I don't think in a Division I game I'd thrown a curveball before three weeks ago. so after my first outing against Nicholls this season, we were relying almost exclusively on my fastball, and he and I met the next morning and talked about adding a curveball. I was like I threw one back in the day, and he said I think that will help with the way my fastball plays. We can create a tunnel off of that with the downward, hard breaking ball. We got to work with that. Frankie Niemann as well has been a huge help with that, and that's really been a focus of developing that so we have something to keep guys off of my fastball. It's kind of a rising tide lifts all boats. You add something else to the arsenal and it takes them off my fastball. Now my fastball looks better even though it's the same fastball it was. Now they're not hunting just that. The development of that has been huge for me, and I have to credit coach Izzio with that. We've incorporated my changeup more and continued to work on that, refining that and having that be something that we can lean on really. That's been the biggest development for me over the last couple of weeks. I've gone from really a one-pitch pitcher, which I think I've thrown 90-percent fastballs in my career, and had some decent success doing it."
On fastball speed:
"It's been up to 95, but it's probably more 92, 94 than anything else. It's really more the peripheral metrics that make it as good a pitch as it is, but hitters at this level are so talented that if you're only throwing one pitch at them, regardless of the velocity, regardless of the induced vertical break, they can get to it, but now if you can force them to respect two or three pitches, it makes it a lot more difficult especially when you have the low-mid 90s in your back pocket. Now it gets up on you a little bit quicker."
On grad degree:
"I'm getting a master's in sports studies.:
On being two-time Academic All-SEC at Ole Miss:
"One thing my mama always emphasized, that was the deal we made was all right, if you're going to go to Ole Miss, you better get good grades. You're going to graduate in three years and if baseball doesn't work out, you can go to grad school. I was just excited to play baseball forever. I'm going to play college baseball forever."
